PathWhiz

Pathway Description

Folate Polyglutamylation

Arabidopsis thaliana

Metabolic Pathway

Tetrahydrofolate is an essential cofactor that takes part in various enzymatic reactions as a carrier for one-carbon units. Most folates are further modified to form folate polyglutamates via consecutive additions of glutamate residues to the their gamma-carboxylate groups. This can serve many purposes including retention of the folates within the cell and an increase in their binding strength. Folate (and folate derivatives) polyglutamylation occurs in the cytosol. Tetrahydrofolate can be synthesized into two derivatives: a N10-formyl-tetrahydrofolate (catalyzed by 10-formyltetrahydrofolate synthetase) and a 5,10-methylene-tetrahydrofolate (catalyzed by serine hydroxymethyltransferase). Next, the enzyme polylpolyglutamate synthetase catalyzes the addition of a glutamate residue to tetrahydrofolate (or tetrahydrofolate derviative) in folate polyglutamylation. This includes tetrahydropteroyl-[gamma-Glu](n) becoming tetrahydropteroyl-[gamma-Glu](n+1), methylene-tetrahydropteroyl-[gamma-Glu](n) becoming methylene-tetrahydropteroyl-[gamma-Glu](n+1), and 10-formyl-tetrahydropteroyl-[gamma-Glu](n) becoming 10-formyl-tetrahydropteroyl-[gamma-Glu](n+1).

References

Folate Polyglutamylation References

Ravanel S, Cherest H, Jabrin S, Grunwald D, Surdin-Kerjan Y, Douce R, Rebeille F: Tetrahydrofolate biosynthesis in plants: molecular and functional characterization of dihydrofolate synthetase and three isoforms of folylpolyglutamate synthetase in Arabidopsis thaliana. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2001 Dec 18;98(26):15360-5. doi: 10.1073/pnas.261585098.

Pubmed: 11752472

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